Murphy's Law
by Kittenn1011
Summary: Kurama always thought his human family were normal, that was, until his step-father got a job offer for Hogwarts! As a "muggle" though, he ends up a Smeltings. There, the unthinkable happens! Adopted Fic, previously Kait1991's "Thys Tyme". The rewrite, "Cat's Cradle", is posted, so this version of the story has been abandoned- left up and marked "complete" for archival purpose.
1. I: In Which Kurama is Kidnapped

Kittenn: Konnichiwa! Kittenn's penname is Kittenn1011!

Elmo: I'm her bro, Elmoz!

Kittenn: Ignore him. He's just Kittenn-chan's typer person…

Elmo: Whatever!

Kittenn: Well, enjoy the new; Thys Tyme!

* * *

**Thys Tyme**

_YYHHP: Kurama always thought his human family were normal, that was, until his step-father got a job offer for Hogwarts! As a "muggle" though, he ends up a Smeltings. There, the unthinkable happens! _

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**Adopted from Kait1991**

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**IMPORTANT NOTE: WHEN CHAPTER THREE IS PUBLISHED KITTENN-CHAN WILL CHANGE THE TITLE TO SOMETHING MORE ON HER END OF THE 'NET! PLEASE DON'T BE ALARMED, AND NEXT CHAPTER KITTENN-CHAN WILL ANNOUNCE THE NEW TITLE!**

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**_I: In Which Kurama is Kidnapped_**

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"Shiori! Shiori!" yelled a tall Japanese man with black hair and blue eyes yelled into another room.

"Yes, Kazuya?" asked the small woman with black hair and jade green eyes whom he addressed. She was sitting in the kitchen next to a 16-year-old boy with long red hair and eyes of a deep emrald shade.

The man ran into the room said people were in, obviously overjoyed with something. "I've been asked to take a teaching position in Shuiichi school in England!" he shouted, very proud of this.

"That's great!" a 14-year-old boy with black hair and steel-blue eyes yelled. He was sitting on the floor playing checkers with himself.

"If I accept this position, we will have to move to England for the duration of my employment. Unfortunately though, Shuuichi-kun will not be able to attend the school. I can get him into a neighboring school as an exchange student instead." Kazuya said with a bit of a sad glint in his otherwise eager eyes.

"Hatanaka-san, if that's all that would stop you from taking this job then I don't have any protest. After all, how many Japanese students get the opportunity to go study in England?" the red head boy, called Shuuichi, smiled at him.

"I'm good with that! When do we have to be there?" Shiori asked in support,but with a quizzical look on her face.

"Well… three days?" Kazuya said, a wry smile fitting his face.

"What? We'd better get packing then, shouldn't we?" she said surprised, and began to assign rooms to be packed as Kazuya nodded.

* * *

"Attention passengers!" a cheery voice said over the intercom, "We will be landing soon, please put all trays and seats in the upright position, and we are about to land! Thank you!"

"They are _way_ too perky for just having done a 19 hour flight!" Kurama grumbled in exhaustion, pulling his chair into the fixed position.

The landing was rough, to say in the least, and Kurama climbed out of the crowded plane, and into an equally crowded airport. The unloading pace was slow and pushy as the tourists tried to be the first off the plane, and along with the immigrants and the British coming home from _their _vacation trying to do the same thing you could only say that Kurama was very annoyed.

An obese man with a purple face stood waiting for a foreign kid his son's school had dumped on him for the rest of the summer. He didn't even sign up for hosting a transfer! Why'd they have to send the kid to him, huh? He grumbled about dumb schools and stupid transfers when it was announced that the plane had landed. Maybe he should just ditch and leave the kid here?

"This 'Sho-ichy' kid better not be taking his time" he mumbled to himself as the Japanese passengers began to unload, and study their surrounding. A boy with long red hair who was dressed in black slacks and a white polo shirt walked up to him.

"Excuse me sir, are you by any chance a Mr. Vernon Dursley?" he asked in a mellow, though highly accented, voice.

"Yes," he grumbled, though inwardly speculating about Smeltings being a boy's school. Wait… was that girl really a guy? Vernon shuddered.

"I am Shuichi Minamino," he smiled back as cheerfully as he could after the lengthy flight.

"Well then, we don't have all day boy! Get your luggage and follow me!" he snapped, Kurama looked at him, puzzled at his attitude (didn't he sign up for a transfer?), but followed him reluctantly after grabbing his big brown suitcase.

The rode to the Dursley home in silence, and when they got to the home Kurama quickly grabbed his suitcase and followed Vernon into the perfect-looking house.

"Potter! Get down here now!"

Harry was sitting at his desk writing a letter when Vernon shouted for his presence on the main floor.

With thoughts about why he might be needed he shouted, "Coming," as he ran down the stairs, but on his way down remembered that the exchange student was going to be staying in his room on the cot that the Dursleys had grudgingly rented.

He saw an Asian with long red hair (didn't they usually have black hair?) standing next to his much hated and very grumpy uncle. He was about Harry's height, had vibrant green eyes and was dressed in slacks and a polo shirt. He looked tired.

"This is going to be your roommate until you leave for school in a week and a half. Now go!" Vernon shouted angrily at the two.

"C'mon!" Harry beckoned for the Asian, who hastily ran after him, still lugging his suitcase up the stairs with little effort. When they got into Harry's room the boy set his suitcase on the floor, bowed to Harry, and sat down beside the case.

"Thank you for allowing me to stay in you room." he said sleepily,

"Um… you're welcome?" Harry said nervously, taken back by the foreign gesture of bowing at your host. The boy closed his eyes drowsily.

"Is he always like that?" He asked in the same sleepy tone as before and Harry drew the attention of the boy quickly to the cot. He nodded and muttered something about the horrors of trans-continental flight as he climbed onto his cot. "Oh, and by the way, I'm Shuuichi Minamino."

"Harry Potter, and yes, he is always like that. If you think he's bad, wait 'til you meet Dudley."

"Is he that fat boy who glared at me when I came in to the house?"

"That would be Dudley." Harry spoke in a sarcastic tone "Are you hungry, or just sleepy? I got some cake and candy in here. Don't expect anything worthwhile from the Dursleys; only Dudley gets any food worth eating." Harry silently noted that he felt sorry for the boy; he had to go to go to Dudley's school as well as stay the summer here. At least if he hadn't stayed here then he would've been able to escape Dudley's notice… but now…

"I am a little bit hungry, That plane food wasn't very edible. But, you don't need to give me any of you stash; I brought my own from home" he stood up again and opened the top zipper of his suitcase and took out a large bag of food, most of which Harry couldn't identify. "Want some? I've got rice cakes, candied grasshoppers, candied fruit and a few other things."

"Uh, let's trade some of it later, so you try my kind of sweets, and I yours! Right now though, you look like you need a nap."

Kurama was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

* * *

Kurama woke up feeling rejuvenated. Even though he slept on a hard cot in a tiny room, the sleep was essential for his adjustment to the time-zones and then looked at the time. It was nine in the morning. He chuckled at his own sluggishness and looked to the bed across the room and saw Harry reading a book.

"Harry-san?" his voice shocked the wizard and he quickly put his book under his pillow before looking over to Kurama.

"Good morning Su-ee-chee."

"Yeah," Kurama scratched the back of his head, slightly disturbed at the horrible pronunciation, "Why don't you call me my nickname, Kurama. It'd be easier to pronounce."

* * *

All of the residents of Number 4 Privet Drive were stacked into the tiny car. They dropped Harry off at King's Cross station then took Kurama and Dudley to the station that they boarded the Smeltings' train. The two boys got on the train; the spoiled Dudley waving only half-heartedly at his parents, and waited for it to go impatiently. Most likely he was getting ready to beat on a new group of students. It left at noon, packed with boys, most of whom were very rich. Dudley hooked up with his friends and they took a compartment leaving Kurama alone in the compartment they had taken earlier.

"Thank Kami-sama they're gone" he said in Japanese to himself.

* * *

"Shiori, there is something I didn't tell you about Shuiichi's school; it's a magic a school, as in witches and wizards. That's why Shuuichi-kun couldn't come; he doesn't have magic like me and Shuiichi." Kazuya told his wife uncertainly. Really, he had no idea how she'd react to information like this.

"Why didn't you tell me this? I mean, when Shuiichi-kun started school?" Shiori asked him with more emotionally hurt than angry tone.

"Because I wanted to protect you and Shuuichi, there is a war going on in the wizarding world, one where muggles, what we call non-magic people, are at danger! Do you understand? A war! I was trying to make it so neither of you two got hurt!" Kazuya defended himself.

"What's the school called? And where will I be staying then? I'm not a… a witch" Shiori asked quietly.

"The school is called Hogwarts; I went there when I was Shuiichi's age. You will be staying in a house I purchased in Hogsmeade village, outside of the school grounds."

"Okay, but will Shuuichi be able to visit? You said yourself he's not a wizard."

"Yes, he will…" Kazuya smiled, "but I don't want him to know about how different we are from him just yet."

* * *

Harry and Ron bought a lot of candy off the trolley when it came by, much to Hermione's disgust.

"If you pig out like that you're going to get fat!" Hermione told them sternly and unsuccessfully.

They were about to tell her they didn't care was when they heard sudden commotion outside of their compartment. They opened the door to see Crabbe and Goyle throttling a Gryffindor fourth year.

"Leave him alone!" Harry told them, and much to his surprise the two dropped the boy. It was the Asian boy, Shuiichi Hatanaka.

"Why, Potter?" asked Malfoy in a venomously detesting voice, "He started this fight!"

"You insulted my family's honour!" the boy spat at Malfoy.

"To do that, your family would need honour to insult, mudblood!" Malfoy sneered like an angry snake.

"Leave him alone, Malfoy." Harry repeated in a more stern voice, he, Ron, and Hermione drew their wands and pointed them at the towheaded teenager.

"Get over here, Hatanaka." Ron ordered, and the boy grudgingly listened, drawing his own wand when he stood up. A sudden shout from behind Malfoy and the three boys clad in green turned around quickly, to reveal Ginny and a couple of other fifth year Gryffindor girls. The said three boys scrambled away quickly.

"Thanks!" Hermione said as Harry, Ron, and Shuiichi stuffed into the compartment and waved at them.

"Any time!" one of the girls said, they waved and walked away.

"Thanks," Shuiichi said bowing and then walked back after the girls.

"He reminds me a bit of the kid that stayed with the Dursleys. You know, the one that goes to Smeltings," Harry said as they entered their compartment.

"Really?" Hermione asked surprised for a moment and Harry nodded. "It could be just that they're both Japanese. They have strangely polite customs over there."

* * *

Kurama fell onto a hard school dorm bed. Fortunately for him he and Dudley didn't room together, instead he was stuck with all of the boys in the grade ahead, but that didn't bother him. He had been here only a week and had already achieved the title of 'nerd', not that it bothered him either. He sighed; he could hear that everyone else in the room was asleep.

He got out of bed and walked around the hallways, quiet as a demon thief. He heard the whisper of cloth rubbing on cloth and chose to follow it. Soon he saw that he was stalking a group of people dressed in black attire like a bathrobe and white masks. Wordlessly he cursed Koenma for making him give him up all of his seeds except that of a single rose.

"Why burn this school down, it's a muggle school!" whispered one of the men.

Muggle? He wasn't fluent in English so he didn't think much of not knowing the word.

"Because, the Dark Lord ordered it, if you wish to complain, wait until we get back and do it to his face!" the one in the front threatened in a hissing tone. Kurama momentarily felt he was in a sci-fi movie that Dudley had been watching over the summer. Star-Wars, was it?

"Not on my life!" the first one whispered back in a more set and scared voice than before. They started to move again, this time towards Kurama, catching the said hiding red-head off guard. He lost his balance and stumbled out of his hiding place ungracefully. Before he got back up he was surrounded.

"Stupefy!" one of them yelled angrily, and the others shushed him. Kurama collapsed into unconsciousness without being touched.

"What do we do with him?" one of them asked, worried.

"Bring him to the Dark Lord, I feel a power in him somehow, stronger than that that we have," said the tallest of them, and the rest of the group nodded at his words. They knew to trust the Death Eater with a sixth sense.

One of the men picked him up haistily, and the rest turned around and said one word in unison while pointing their wands at the school. The group then disappeared with a loud cracking noise, bringing an unconscious Kurama with them.

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Kittenn: If you bothered to read Kittenn-chan's version of the chapter and have read the old version, then you could probably see the difference. If you skipped over Kittenn-chan doubts you're reading this, but the entire story will be changed in a way, as to fit Kittenn's own plot change, so don't skip a chapter or you'll get confused.

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2,253 words

10,209 characters (no spaces)

12 396 characters (with spaces)

225 lines

7 pages

71 paragraphs


	2. II: In Which the Dark Mark is Sighted

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Kittenn: Konnichiwa! Welcome back!

Elmo: Hello.

Kittenn: Kittenn-chan is exited about having a chapter up!

Elmo: Whatever!

Kittenn: Well, enjoy the new; Thys Tyme!

* * *

**Thys Tyme**

_YYHHP: Kurama always thought his human family were normal, that was, until his step-father got a job offer for Hogwarts! As a "muggle" though, he ends up a Smeltings. There, the unthinkable happens! _

* * *

**Adopted from Kait1991**

* * *

**IMPORTANT NOTE: WHEN CHAPTER THREE IS PUBLISHED KITTENN-CHAN WILL CHANGE THE TITLE TO SOMETHING MORE ON HER END OF THE .NET! PLEASE DON'T BE ALARMED, AND NEXT CHAPTER KITTENN-CHAN WILL ANNOUNCE THE NEW TITLE, 'CAUSE KITTENN-CHAN HASN'T THOUGHT OF ONE YET!**

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**_II: In Which The Dark Mark Is Sighted_**

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Harry sat in the great hall, it was breakfast and the owls and post had just entered the Great Hall. The Daily Prophet was dropped in front of him by one of the Prophet Owls and he tossed it the money. He looked at the cover in shock.

"Harry, what's wrong?" Hermione asked taking the paper from him. Harry didn't often act like that. He'd usually brush off the junk in the paper. "Oh my god, listen!

_Dark Mark Over Burned Muggle School-One Missing_

_The muggle school in question, Smelting's Boarding School For Boys, was burned to the ground late last night, frightening both muggle and wizards alike, for above the school was the dark mark, as You-Know-Who's own way of stating the murder, The missing boy, recent exchange student Shuuichi Minamino of Japan, was last seen in his dorm room by the Dorm Advisor. He is presumed dead but they will continue to search for his body. _

_Rita Skeeter of Daily Prophet writes._

"That's horrible!" Ginny said from beside Hermione.

"That's the name of the kid who was staying with the Dursleys!" Harry said after a moment, and it sunk in. He had been fond of Kurama.

Suddenly; they saw the new DADA teacher, Professor Hatanaka, walk over to an entranced Shuiichi. He grabbed his son and led him to Professor Dumbledore.

"…I request a one week's leave of absence, about my son's possible death," was all that the trio heard of the short conversation.

"His son? Shuiichi is alive and kicking!" Ron stated flabbergasted at what their new teacher had said.

"Kurama-"

"Who's Kurama?"

"Shuuichi Minamino! He said that his stepfather got a job at his step-brother's school. It's possible that he's Hatanaka's step-son." Harry said to his friends.

"Well, I hope that they find him alive, either way," Hermione sighed, poking her breakfast with her fork as she was no longer hungry.

* * *

"What is it that you feel is so important that it is enough to bring to my attention?" asked a snakelike sneering voice from an equally snakelike sneering man, who was sitting in a chair and not facing those he was speaking at.

"This boy," The Death Eaters behind him lifted Kurama's still unconscious form, "has a power that is strong enough that I can feel it, it's not only a strange power, it is magic, my lord, a strange dark magic!"

"Wipe his mind of his memory then," Voldemort spoke in a careless voice. He trusted this Death Eaters sixth sense, but not enough to put all his eggs in one basket. "You will harness his power and make him one of my followers. You'll teach him to use his magic, and have him report here in one year's time. Cut and dye his hair too, he's too noticeable with it in its current state." He hissed to the Death Eaters menacingly.

"Yes, my lord." The trio of cloaked men backed away, dragging Kurama with them to their destination. Before they left the room though, Voldemort spoke a last time to them.

"Tell him his name is Riddle," ordered the snake man as his followers disappeared into the shadows. Voldemort silently smirked to himself.

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Kittenn: Kittenn-chan knows it's short. In Kittenn-chan's defence, this looked like the best place to stop at. Another chapter will be up by this weekend to pay readers-chan back!

Elmo: QUIT SPEAKING IN THIRD PERSON!

Kittenn: NO! BAD ELMO-CHAN! DOWN BOY!

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**530 words**

**2,458 characters (no spaces)**

**2,974 characters (with spaces)**

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**3 pages**

**17 paragraphs**


	3. III: In Which Everything Goes Well

Kittenn: Konnichiwa

Kittenn: Konnichiwa! Welcome back!

Elmo: Hello.

Kittenn: Kittenn-chan is exited about having a chapter up!

Elmo: Whatever!

Kittenn: Well, enjoy the new; Thys Tyme!

Elmo: Which is now: Murphy's Law

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**Murphy's Law:**

_(Previously THYS TYME): YYHHP: Kurama always thought his human family were normal, that was, until his step-father got a job offer for Hogwarts! As a "muggle" though, he ends up a Smeltings. There, the unthinkable happens! _

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**Adopted from Kait1991**

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**IMPROTANT NOTE: NEXT CHAPTER IS THE CHAPTER I'M GOING TO CHANGE THE OFFICIAL TITLE. **

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_**III: In Which Everything Goes Well**_

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Everything that can go wrong will go wrong. Those were Kurama's last thoughts before the men shouted the memory erasing spell.

Murphy proved once more that no matter what, something will go wrong for one party involved.

A boy with short shaggy jet black hair and green eyes stood in plain black wizards' robes.

The towheaded man in front of him had long hair and cruel blue eyes. He bowed down before the final man in the room who looked like a snake hybrid. Malfoy bowed to Voldemort.

"You haven't failed me again, have you?" Voldemort spoke, "Is this Riddle?"

"Yes my lord," Malfoy spoke nonchalantly.

"Good. You are dismissed; tell the recruits to get in here." He ordered in his raspy voice. Malfoy ran out of the room.

Teenagers entered the room.

One stepped forward when Voldemort pointed his long white forefinger at him. He had brown hair and equally brown eyes. "Larsen. Riddle, come forward!" This time his finger pointed towards the jet-headed boy. "Duel. Fight with both magic and anything else you come up with! The winner will go to Hogwarts as an infiltrator and receive my highest significance. Begin!"

The pair threw curses and jinxes at each other, occasionally hitting the other person. The boy called Riddle pulled some spectacular movements that stunned the onlookers, (and he later defended that his body moved on its own). Suddenly he charged at Larson and kneed him in the stomach, taking his wand and throwing it across the room. He lifted his wand to give the final curse, when the hybrid-looking man spoke once more, "Stop,"

Riddle glared at Larson in triumph and retreated to the other side of the room, only to bow down to his Lord Voldemort and wait for instructions, as the perfect puppet he was.

"Riddle, get your things you are leaving tomorrow. Don't bother returning if you fail." He ordered the teen strictly. Riddle stood and turned sharply, leaving as silently as he'd entered in the first place. The snake-man turned on Larson. "_Crucio!_"

* * *

Harry sat in his compartment, which was ironically empty, waiting for Hermione and Ron to get back from checking in up in the prefect carriage. He was drumming his hand along the windowsill and watching when the door opened and a head popped in.

"Do you mind if I sit in here?" he asked, and a bit of his black hair fell into his eyes as he tilted his head in question.

"Uh… sure," Harry said, wondering who the boy was.

"I'm Eric." He said, now that he was in the compartment Harry could see that he was the same height as himself, his black hair was cut in the current fashion of the wizarding world, he had jade green eyes almost the same shade as Harry, only the boy's eyes had a sparkle which was almost manipulative looking, and was dressed in entirely black robes.

"Harry Potter," he introduced himself. Eric gave him a look of reorganization and his eyes quickly darted to his forehead and back to Harry's eyes. The movement was slight and almost unnoticeable. Almost.

They sat in an awkward silence for a while, until Ron and Hermione opened the compartment door to see them sitting in opposite corners and staring at the wall in front of them.

"Hey Harry, who's this?" Hermione asked as she sat next to said Boy-Who-Lived.

"Eric, this is Hermione and Ron, guys meet Eric," Harry said casually.

"Hello Eric," Hermione greeted in question, "If you don't mind me asking, what year are you in? I've never seen you before, and you're way too old to be a first year."

"I'm a seventh year, I'm transferring from a privately run school in Ireland," Eric told her, a soft smile at the end, which Hermione took as a hint that he missed the old school.

"That's cool; we're in seventh, too. Gryffindor." Hermione smiled back in encouragement.

Malfoy chose that moment to enter the compartment. Because what's a train ride to Hogwarts without the appearance of our favourite prick?

"Well, well, well, if it isn't my dear old friend, Riddle. How nice of you to join us at Hogwarts (much better than your old school), but your with the wrong kind," Malfoy paused as to pull a reaction from his once houseguest, Eric had a calm look on his face, so he moved on, "They're all Mudbloods and muggle lovers! Riddle, let's go. You don't want to hang out with them!" He spat out the final word like it was vile. Malfoy had just grabbed Eric's arm to drag him from the compartment when Eric grabbed the said Slytherin's arm and set it behind Malfoy's back in a single fluid motion that could only be accomplished if Eric had had years of training in martial arts. Though, who's to say he didn't?

"You getting in my way," he breathed portentously into Malfoy's ear, and then he shoved him into Crabbe and Goyle forcefully. "Get out of here, now."

The three stumbled from the compartment, leaving Harry and Ron gawking at Eric.

Eric turned around with a bright grin on his face, "Now, where were we?"

"That," Ron said dubiously, "was amazing!"

"It was? That guy just drives me nuts," Eric said with a lop-sided grin.

"What you say to him? He seemed to be out in a hurry after that."

"I told him that if he didn't leave, I'd break both his arms, and then curse him to sing random 50's muggle songs when ever he talks." Eric lied, his eye twinkling in the same way they were when he first entered.

"You need to teach me that curse!" Ron shouted and jumped out of his seat.

Hermione scowled at the laughing boys and looked at her watch. "Guy's we'll be at Hogwarts soon, we should change."

"Dumbledore told me to wear this until I get sorted; then I get to wear my house colors." Eric said sheepishly.

"Try to get into Gryffindor, Slytherins are all like Malfoy." Harry said encouragingly.

"I'll wait in the hall, knock when you're done," Hermione said as the boys continued their conversation on the houses. Eric nodded at their comment about Gryffindor being the best and turned to Hermione.

"I'm going too, I guess." Eric said, following her out.

"Is it just me or did Malfoy call him Riddle?" Ron whispered to Harry after the door closed.

"He did, but it could just be a coincidence." Harry's rational side kicked in as Ron accused the possibly innocent boy, "I've met tons of muggles with the last name of Potter, but none are related to me."

"Yeah, that probably what it is, but if he goes to Slytherin, we'll now other wise." Ron said accusingly. "Done?"

"Yeah," they traded places in the car with Hermione, who changed rather quickly as they waited in the hall.

"This is going to be a fun year! I just know it!" Hermione said grinning as they got off the train. Harry sighed and when he asked her if she meant fun, or interesting. Every year had proven to be interesting in its sick and scary way. Hagrid was gathering the first years when he saw the Golden Trio (plus one).

"Hey guys! Whose yer friend?" He asked.

"Hagrid, this is Eric. He's transferring here from some random private magic school," Harry said.

"Ah, so you're Eric Riddle, c'mon boy, you're wit' me!" Hagrid led Eric and the first years towards the lake as he always did, and Eric turned and waved at the Trio before he got in a boat with a few of first years.

* * *

Shuiichi sat in the middle of the table, where he would have a perfect view of the sorting, and he could also see his father; the only Defence teacher to ever last more than a year, though last year was very jumpy. His father had to have Snape cover for most of the year because of the moments where Shiori needed somebody with her. Loosing Shuuichi was harsh on them and with all the missed classes it was inevitable that Hatanaka wasn't affected by the curse. Professor Hatanaka smiled at his son.

The sorting was relatively short; only about thirty-five new first years this year, and eight went to Gryffindor.

"Before our feast begins I have to say a few words," groans came from the majority of the audience when Dumbledore spoke, "I have a special announcement; a transfer will be joining us for his Seventh year. I'd like to introduce, Eric Riddle." The entire student body turned around to see the hall door open to reveal an average height Asian boy.

The first thoughts that ran along Shuiichi's mind were how much he looked like Shuuichi, and reminding his self that his bother was dead. That boy, Eric, couldn't be Shuuichi. He just looks like him. The fifth year watched Eric walk up to the front of the hall.

Similar thoughts went through Hatanaka's mind when he saw Eric Riddle, but in his case, by the time he banished the thought Riddle was already wearing the sorting hat. Riddle sat on the stool, tapping his left foot in a quick and anxious rhythm.

"_Well, look at what we have here! Don't much memory, now, do we?"_

"I was on the bad end of a memory charm in my sixth year, according to my father,"

"_Interesting mind. Slytherin would do well, would it not? But it seems you don't want Slytherin."_

"No Slytherin"

"_Now, now, I can see your life. You're…"_

"Not Slytherin! I thought you took into account what we want!"

"_Why not Slytherin, it suits the memories you have, and your personality, the next best is Gryffindor, but I don't think you'd fit in there…"_

"Gryffindor sounds good, can I be there?"

"Gryffindor!" the hat shouted, leaving a clearly shocked Slytherin table gawking at him as he strutted over to the Gryffindor's table.

"Hey, shift over Neville. We met him on the train, he's actually really nice." Hermione said, motioning for Eric to sit by them. She moved towards Neville, the spot Eric sat in was next to Suichi Hatanaka.

"Eric, what had the hat said? You were up there for a long while." Harry asked as the food appeared in front of them and Ron began to dig in.

"It was interested in my memory, or to be more specific, my-lack-thereof." Eric said, taking a spoonful of mashed potatoes and dropping it on his plate.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Ron between bites.

"I was on the bad end of a memory charm in my sixth year, according to my father, that is." Eric told him.

"Wow, but you still know all the stuff you need for the year, right? If you didn't wouldn't you be re-learning it all right now?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Yeah, it's easy to learn stuff like that. What I miss is anything on my family, and after the charm incident I lost all of my friends because I was frantically studying to catch back up to their level, because I was relearning everything from first year up. It was interesting to loose your memory, I give it that." Eric answered her, with a soft smile that earned him a confused glance from the fifth year boy beside him.

"You look like my brother." He blurted out then turned away. His face was a deep red.

"What?" Eric looked to the younger boy with confusion in his eyes.

"My older brother, he'd be your age if he was still alive. He had the same smile as you, and the same green eyes, if I didn't know any better; I'd say you are him." He told Eric quietly, stuttering on the touchy subject.

It was true though, even when Harry looked, Eric exact same had the emerald eyes and sly smile. The only difference was that Kurama's eyes had an indifferent look about them, and Eric's were less conserved.

"I'm sorry for your loss, and I apologize that I look like him." Eric told the boy compassionately.

"Is ok, you can't do anything about that. Your name is Eric right?"

"Yep! Eric Riddle," He grinned at the boy before joining Ron in an argument about the best Quidditch team.

"The Cannons will never make the cup, now the Wasps, there's a team with potential!" Eric told him, receiving a sour look.

"The Canons with eventually make it to the cup, and when they do, I hope they win! Then I'll rub it in your stubborn face!" Ron argued back with his food spitting out of his mouth as he spoke.

"Will you two shut up?" Hermione and Harry yelled in unison. Ron and Eric's heads snapped at the pair, gawking something terrible. Hermione hated Quidditch talk with passion, and Harry just wasn't in the mood.

There was friendly talk the rest of the feast. Ron, Hermione and the rest of the prefects guided the first years to Gryffindor Tower. Harry and Eric walked together near the end of the group, talked about various things all the way to the tower. When they arrived and Eric learned of the dormitory he would sleep in he waved goodbye saying he was going to write a letter to his friend.

Unknown to Eric, Hermione heard his comment and was immediately suspicious. "_I lost all of my friends because I was frantically studying to catch back up to their level."_

* * *

_Dear Father_

_I am a Gryffindor. I'm so proud to be sorted into the house that you wanted me to be in! And I'm so exited about studding at your old school! I'll keep you posted on events!_

_Love from Your Son,_

_Eric Riddle._

He smirked at his ability to disguise his message in case of intersection. Eric pulled the small post owl from inside of its cage; it resembled a very small barn owl. He tied the message to the owl's leg whispering, "Take it to him," and threw it out the window to deliver the note to _him_.

The small owl's figure was lost into the dark of the evening's twilight.

* * *

Kittenn: Kittenn-chan has nothing to say here. Ja ne!

Elmo: Bye!

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**2,531 words**

**11,519 characters (no spaces)**

**13,982 characters (with spaces)**

**254 lines**

**8 pages**

**89 paragraphs**


	4. IV: In Which Kurama Sleeps

Kittenn: Konnichiwa

Kittenn: Konnichiwa! Welcome back!

Elmo: Hello peoples.

Kittenn: Their title is "Reader-chan" Elmo.

Elmo: Hello Reader-chans.

Kittenn: Elmo-nii-kun is hopeless! Kittenn-chan is exited about having a chapter up!

Elmo: Whatever! I'm not hopeless.

Kittenn: Well, enjoy the new; Thys Tyme!

Elmo: This is now Murphy's Law…

* * *

**Murphy's Law:**

_(Previously THYS TYME): YYHHP: Kurama always thought his human family were normal, that was, until his step-father got a job offer for Hogwarts! As a "muggle" though, he ends up a Smeltings. There, the unthinkable happens! _

**

* * *

Adopted from Kait1991**

* * *

* * *

**IMPROTANT NOTE: NEXT CHAPTER IS THE CHAPTER I'M GOING TO CHANGE THE OFFICIAL TITLE. NEXT TIME LOOK OUT FOR MURPHY'S LAW! **

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**

* * *

IV: In Which Eric Sleeps**

* * *

When Harry came up for bed he saw Eric asleep on his bed with _Standard Book of Spells Year 7_ resting open in front of him. He gave the sleeping form a tiny smile.

Harry pulled a blanket over Eric, and could only be reminded of the times he had to do the same with Eric's look-alike, Kurama.

"_English literature is fascinatingly amusing."_

* * *

Eric stood inside of a huge stadium, there were hundreds of weird looking people cheering in various strange languages. He looked up and saw a short boy with almost gravity defying spiked black hair fighting someone with a sharp sword. Suddenly everything changed in a slow blurry haze,

Everything was gone, the stadium, the things that cheered, even the dark sky, (which was now a clear violet blue), everything except the boy. He was walking on the clear glassy surface that supported the two and through the smoky mist that covered said surface Eric watched him walk and then thought for a moment.

"Hey you!" Eric called. There was no answer, and Eric started to run after him. "Wait up!"

His voice echoed, almost dreamily, but it was so real. He heard a voice coming from everywhere. The voice spoke in a monotone and echoed just like his own.

"Fox?"

He kept chasing the boy in confusion, and the loud echoing voice that came from everywhere seemed to fit the small boy, if it came from him, that is.

"Wait, stop!

"Fox? Kurama, it's me! Hiei!"

He turned around looking for the source of this voice claiming to be named Hiei, and he turned back to the boy.

"Wait!"

He continued to chase the boy, yelling at him, but the boy kept walking away slowly, and Eric kept running as fast as he could in pursuit. The boy still managed to stay, what seemed like miles ahead of him. Then, barely a whisper he heard the raspy voice again, only this time it was more soft, like a whisper.

Wake up.

* * *

"Wait!" Eric sat bolt upright his arm outstretched as to grab something that was just out of his arms' reach.

"Eric! It was a dream!" Harry cried in alarm as he dodged Eric's arm. It was headed right for his face.

"Harry! I'm sorry! I didn't know you were there." Eric spoke in the same panicked tone as Harry, though apologetically, and he grinned sheepishly.

"It's okay, you were sleeping. I do it too sometimes." Harry grinned back as to accept his apology.

"Are you a hundred percent sure I was sleeping? It seemed so real to me," Eric hushed.

"Yeah, your eyes were closed, and you were even sleep taking." Harry said as proof of Kurama's sleep.

"It was a weird dream then, that's all I can say." Eric shook his head in attempt to shake the heaviness of said dream away.

"Let's get some sleep, when you wake up, please try to avoid screaming, it tends to makes people grumpy." Harry joked in a serious tone, "G'nigh'."

"Night." Eric climbed under his covers, staring at the ceiling in thought for many hours.

"_Don't bother returning if you fail."_

* * *

Harry woke up to see Eric had gone, and so was his book-bag. He groggily got up and got dressed, dragging his feet all the way to the Great Hall.

In the great Hall was where he found Eric reading. Across from him Hermione took part in the same activity.

"Hey guys, why are you reading? It's too early for thinking." Harry said sleepily, dropping down like a lump next to Hermione.

"Because it's good to read, helps you to retain knowledge." Eric said without looking up from the pages.

"Yeah, you should read that new defence book! We've got double DADA with Hatanaka this morning, then we have Care for Magical Creatures with Slytherin, again, then Herbology." Hermione sighed.

"You already got the schedule memorized? It's a good thing we're both going for Auror; it means I don't have to memorize the schedule right away. Eric, what are you going for?" Harry asked the new boy in curiosity.

"Auror, too. It had the most interesting course schedule; everything else was just plain boring." Eric said making a gross face.

"He has a point." Ron appeared beside Eric at the table just as the conversation began.

"Thanks. Auror, too?"

"Yep, we all went for the same thing on purpose." Ron told him as-a-matter-of-factly, all of his previous dislike for the black-haired Asian gone instantaneously.

The post owls chose that moment to fly into the Great Hall. A barn owl dropped Hermione the Daily Prophet and she tossed it the cost, and surprisingly, a horny owl dropped something in front of Eric. He opened it silently, recognizing the handwriting on the envelope.

He really hoped it was disguised, for he needed to open it in the hall as to not let the suspicion of said target arise.

_Dear Son,_

_Congratulations! I always hoped my son would end up in Gryffindor! I hope you have fun and your grades are up to my standards. Tell me when your next Hogsmead trip is, so I can send you some money, The village is amazing!_

_Equal Love From,_

_You Father_

* * *

Professor Hatanaka was reclining in his desk chair waiting for is first class; the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw seventh years. They arrived in large flocks, and within five minutes the entire class was present. He stood up and smiled at them in recognition, the first DADA teacher to do so. He recognized almost all of them except one, sitting at Harry Potter's table; it was the new boy, Eric Riddle.

"Welcome back class, for those of you who pathetically don't remember; I am Professor Hatanaka, and because I'm from Japan, you can also call me sensei. This year we will be studying both physical and magic defence. Wands are only useful at distances, and if they are in your possesion, if your get up close in a fist-fight, similar kind of muggle fight, or get disarmed you'll need to be able to defend yourself! Today, you will take turns skirmishing with me; I want to see where each of you stands physically. Riddle, you come first."

Eric confidently walked to the front of the classroom. He stood in a slightly crouched position, his hands displayed in front of him in half-fists and a knowledgeable look within his vibrant green eyes.

Hatanaka took a similar position, and the fight began in the quick movement of the professor. Hatanaka swung his clenched fists at Eric's momentarily unprotected torso, but his fist went through thin air when Eric dropped his body to the ground and tripped Hatanaka in one fluid motion. Hatanaka swiftly somersaulted to his feet and the fight commenced, Eric too back on his own feet. He parried all of Hatanaka's attacks, which made Hatanaka angry, so he attacked harder and faster than before. Suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his stomach; he looked down to see the Eric had planted his knee there. Looking up hastily he saw Eric's fist catch his shoulder, knocking him away and onto the ground.

"I give!" Hatanaka shouted, trying to get to his feet unsuccessfully. He looked at the class, their eyes wide with shock. When he glanced over at Eric to see that he was looking at the hand he used in the final attack.

"Class dismissed," Hatanaka said through clenched teeth, "and, Riddle, stay behind."

The class left, while Harry, Hermione, and Ron lagged behind the group, only to be shooed out too by Hatanaka.

"Where did you learn how to do that?" gasped Hatanaka incredulously.

"Honestly, my knowledge of martial arts is, like, nil. I have no idea where I could possibly have learned it; it was like my body knew something my brain didn't. It terrified me." Eric told his professor in a shaky tone.

"Oh. I was hoping you had had some formal teaching, so you could assist me with your fellows, but-"

"I can still help! It was fun to fight! It thrilled me a way I have never known! Much more invigorating that a simple magic fight! And I need to depend upon my body's abilities too, not just my knowledge of spells to win if I ever need to defend myself. I can help you demonstrate stuff!" Eric told him, a cheerful smile now graced his previously frightened look.

"So, your abilities scared you, but it made you— happy– to be fighting? You, Riddle, have problems; you must never enjoy a fight. Martial Arts and fighting in general must only be used when completely necessary. Otherwise, it makes you no better than your attacker," Hatanaka told the teen sternly.

"It wasn't the fighting that made me happy; I guess it was the adrenaline it gave me," Eric said in his own defence, voice changed to a monotone as he continued, "I'm sure it's the same with other people too. Can I go? My friends will be waiting for me and I don't want to make them late." His cold look explained nothing that was going through his head. The class had been dismissed early. Hatanaka wondered what they could possibly be late for. He quickly decided against keeping the boy longer either way. The look was beginning to creep him out.

"Dismissed, but, Eric, you should work on you fighting skills; you're pretty good at it." Hatanaka waved the teen away. When the boy disappeared out of the door he mumbled to himself, "Strange kid," before walking back to his office.

* * *

"Hiei, give it up, we're not going to find him. It's been a year already." A boy with slicked back brown-black hair, known as Yuusuke, whined to the other boy whom he addressed as Hiei.

"Detective, he's somewhere, he's just being blocked by something," Hiei told him, jumping into a nearby tree for cover as a couple of squirrels scampered by. His next quick decision was then made and he sat down on the branch.

"Whatever, but if your going to try again I'll stay here… and make sure you don't fall out of the tree or something… If I fall asleep, wake me up and just don't leave me here." He lay down on a bench below the tree.

"You just want to see if I find him this time." Hiei pulled off his headband. He closed his two red eyes, and opened his lavender Jagan eye. Yusuke snorted to Hiei's comment and Hiei was long gone.

* * *

Everything was fogged up. It wasn't like morning fog though. Well, it was a bit actually, but everything that could be seen was in a distant blurr.

The fog began to lift, only to show a sleeping boy with short black hair. Hiei was momentarily reminded of Kurama. Same face, same look, same everything except the hair… Kurama would never voluntarily cut his precious red hair, or dye it for that matter.

Hiei attempted to look at the surroundings. He managed to see a huge book resting open in front of the sleeping Kurama, with random scribbles on the cover in place f the title. It was probably a ningen language he didn't speak. Well, he did only speak Japanese and Makainese.

A second boy, with messy black hair and green eyes, European in Hiei's guess, removed the book and draped a blanket over Kurama. With a glassy look in the boy's eyes, he left Hiei's view.

Hiei could only smile at his best friend's look-alike and felt himself begin to slip into Kurama's conscience. He quickly withdrew himself but his face was shown in the dream so there was no doubt the dream must've changed.

"Fox?"

The sleeping Kurama began to mumble franticly and Hiei's ghostlike hand put his hand on Kurama's human heart and felt the beating.

"Fox? Kurama, it's me. Hiei."

He watched as Kurama began to stir and glanced to the other boy approaching said fox demon.

"Kurama, wake up…"

* * *

Hiei's eyes flew open and he covered his Jagan with the snow white bandana that he had nearly dropped out of shock just moments after he 'found' Kurama. He jumped from the tree, smacking the sleeping detective with the flat of his sword.

"Wha—?" Yusuke rolled off the bench.

"Get up; we're going to that Koenma. I've found Kurama; sort of." Hiei snapped, "Where's that Ferry Girl when you need her?"

Speak of the devil and he'll appear before you, Botan appeared in front of them as if she knew Hiei was cursing at her lack of presence. "What is it, Hiei?"

"Take us to Koenma, Hiei's found Kurama." Yusuke said, eagerly jumping off the ground and hugged her in enthusiasm. Botan pushed him away.

Botan took them away as soon as they were both stacked on the oar.

They went immediately to Koenma's office. The young lord was sitting at his desk stamping papers without even looking to see them enter. Yusuke leaned over to Hiei and mumbled, "I bet the reason Kurama is missing is because he agreed to something in one of those stacks," and then imminently began yelling at Koenma in volume that wasn't understandable.

"Where's the fire, Yusuke?" He joked.

"Shut up Koenma; Hiei found Kurama!" (when he spoke this time it was much quieter than the yelling fit he was having before Koenma spoke)

"He did? This is great! Go and get him!" Koenma shouted at Yusuke and Hiei.

"It's not that simple. I found him, but I don't know where he is. He's alive, and he's disguised, like he's hiding from something. Wherever he is, he's near a place with ningen, and they don't speak Japanese, but that's all I can get." Hiei said coldly.

"Okay, so you've found him, but you don't know where he is? Are you aware that that makes no sense?" Koenma shouted, stressing the last couple words.

"Hn. It's better than what you've come up with and you've got the entire spirit world behind you." Hiei glared.

Koenma sighed, "Try to locate him then, as soon as you can! He's not even supposed to leave… Japan…"

"What?" Hiei snapped, with a look demanding Koenma to finish the sentence,

"He gave me a paper, and George said it was something about him needing to go to England and… I think I stamped it… but then he went missing…"

* * *

Kittenn: Differences are becoming more and more obvious.

Elmo: If you find plot-holes and such, tell us, please.

Kittenn: Sorry it took so long…

* * *

Word Count:

**2,911 words**

**13,436 characters (no spaces)**

**16,248 characters (with spaces)**

**313 lines**

**8 pages**

**111 paragraphs**


	5. V: In Which Kurama Plays With a Pony

Kittenn: Bonjour mon ami! This is Kitttenn1011 reporting for duty!

Elmo: She's going insane.

Kittenn: Kittenn is not going insane. Elmo is just creepy!

Elmo: The saner I get, the more insane she gets… I think something's wrong.

* * *

**Murphy's Law**

YYHHP: Kurama always thought his human family were normal, that was, until his step-father got a job offer for Hogwarts! As a "muggle" though, he ends up a Smeltings. There, the unthinkable happens!

* * *

Adopted from Kait1991

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* * *

_From now on, I will be referring to Kurama as Kurama. When I went to start this chapter I went back to check if I called him Kurama, and it turns out I've been calling him Eric. Unless it's somebody's thoughts or words, now he's Kurama_

* * *

**V: I n Which Kurama Plays With a Pony**

* * *

The group of Gryffindors made there was to Hagrid's hut as they always did for Care of Magical Creatures. The group in questions, consisted of our heroes, as they are what this story centers around. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Kurama chatted carelessly, and waved to Hagrid when they saw him waiting for the class in front of his small hut.

"Hello Hagrid!" Harry greeted his large friend when they reached hearing distance of him.

"Hello Harry" Hagrid said in his usual accent.

"What are we studying today?" Hermione asked curiously, always on top of her schoolwork.

"That'd be a secret, Hermione, you'll find out when the rest do." Hagrid told her, just as the last of the class began to arrive.

Malfoy and his goons stood a distance from Hagrid's hut, but with the Slytherins. They seemed to be trying to glare a hole in Kurama's head.

"Did you do something to Malfoy before?" Ron asked Kurama suspiciously. It wasn't a bad thing to ask. I mean, come on. How many people from another school that aren't Death Eaters randomly meet the Malfoys?

"You could say that…" He trailed off his answer with a mischievous grin.

"What did you do? It can't be anything too bad if he tried to haul you away from us on the train." Harry cut in, while Ron and Hermione nodded behind him.

"It's probably because I earned his father's favour. I don't know why he doesn't just bug off about _that._ He can only blame his self." Kurama spit out venomously. Of course, this line got him many wary looks from the Golden Trio.

"How'd you do that? His family only consorts with Dark Wizards; you don't seem to evil…" Ron said doubtfully and untrustingly.

"My guardian— my father— and his father know each other. I spent a lot of time with them against my will. Kami-sama do they drive me nuts!" Kurama exclaimed, rolling his eyes. Hermione blinked at the unfamiliar word.

"Kami-sama?"

With her question, Kurama blinked. "You know I have no idea what that means, it's what came to my head when I was talking." He shrugged it off quickly. The others accepted this, (thinking that he knew the meaning of the word before his memory loss).

"Now everyone, we're headed into the forest today, so stay as a group! If you get separated, send out red sparks and stay put." Hagrid shouted, leading them to the footpath into the forest.

They walked for a short period of time until they reached a little clearing with a paddock in it. The paddock continued into the forest. Inside of it was a herd of winged horses, they where mostly a chestnut in color, but there where a few grey ones as well.

"Anyone know what breeds I got here?" Hagrid asked the class. Hermione's hand immediately shot up. The Gryffindors giggled lightly while the Slytherin poked fun. No other hands went up, as they all knew Hermione had the correct answer. "Hermione?"

"The Chestnut ones are Aethonans, and the grey ones are Granians." She said in a matter-of-fact voice. They Slytherins began to loudly mock her, and Hermione turned to them and stuck out her tongue.

"Very good! Five points for Gryffindor. Hermione, would you like to volunteer and go see them first." Hermione shook her head violently. "Really? Anybody want to volunteer?" Everybody blinked. Kurama (who hadn't been paying attention, as Malfoy had been bothering him… and because Hagrid was otherwise occupied he never noticed Malfoy's sudden and mysterious black eye) stretched lazily, with his arms reaching high above his head.

"Eric, good of you to volunteer!" Hagrid said, taking Kurama's arm and dragging him to the paddock.

"But…"

Hagrid ignored the protest and opened the paddock door, pushing the reluctant Eric inside and bean to explain, "Now, you see that big chestnut one over there?" Hagrid pointed to the one nearest the forest. Kurama nodded. "Good. You need to walk up to him, slowly. Don't spook 'em. He hates that. Keep your arms limp, but show the palms of your hand. He needs to know you're unarmed. If he lets you get close to 'im, nod, while looking him straight in the eye. He'll nod back and that means you can get close. Tha's how they get acquainted, you see?" Kurama nodded again. Hagrid quickly added, "if he bares his teeth, run," before he began his approach.

He slowly walked towards the horse, their eyes met when he was half way there.

"Don't look him in the eye yet!" Hagrid whispered urgently, and Kurama heard. Unable to look away, he nodded. He looked sort of entranced. He stumbled as the thing refused to nod back, but he kept approaching. Hagrid cringed.

"Eric!" Hermione whispered in shock while her friend continued his stumbling to the large winged horse.

Kurama got to the horse-thing. Hagrid was already rushing to the fence when the horse bucked; throwing Kurama across the open space. This movement spooked the rest of the herd, causing them to panic and start to stampede around. Kurama just lay there.

"Get up!" Harry shouted at the still form and Hagrid tried to get over the fence. Soon, all of the Gryffindors were on the fence yelling at Kurama to get up, and even a few Slytherins joined in. Of course, in the confusion, nobody bothered to wonder, 'why?'

The herd started towards where Kurama lay, seemingly unconscious. Hagrid ran towards him in a panic. He picked the boy up rather hurriedly and ran back towards the fence, the people on the fence spread out, giving Hagrid room to get over. Hagrid jumped the fence and he instantaneously set Kurama on the ground outside.

Kurama's eyes were open, but they weren't focused on anything. His chin looked like the hoof had shattered it. Crimson blood poured from his mouth steadily down the side of his cheek. They watched his chest go up and down slightly, and whenever it moved, which wasn't very often, it looked painful. The front of his robes (on his chest) was torn and blood poured from those wounds as well.

"We need to get him to the hospital wing, Hagrid!" Hermione was the first to come to her senses in panic, though disgusted and scared of the mangled body.

"He'll get hurt more if we just pick him up and move him there! Does anyone know how to conjure a stretcher?" asked Dean Thomas. Apparently, all the Gryffindors came to their senses quickly in worry for their friend's life.

When no one said anything they all looked around, panicked. They hadn't really covered conjuring things out of thin air yet.

"Someone run and get Madam Pomfrey or Dumbledore!" ordered Hagrid loudly, and Harry took off along with a few other Gryffindors. They made it to the main entrance before Harry knew who they actually were. It was Dean and Lavender.

"You two go get Madam Pomfrey! I'll get Dumbledore!" Harry said taking off in the directing of Dumbledore's office hidden office.

He stood in front of the gargoyle jumping up and down chanting the names of random candies. "Chocolate Frogs, Fizzing Wizbees, Hershey Kiss, M'nMs-" the last one worked. The gargoyle sprang to life like always and moved upwards to reveal Dumbledore standing right there.

"Ah, Harry, you wanted to see me?" Dumbledore said calmly.

"There's been an accident in Care Of Magical Creatures! Eric's hurt bad!" Harry practically shouted, jumping up and down waving his arm while gasping for breath. "Dean and Lavender are getting Madam Pomfrey!"

"Oh dear, lead the way Harry." Harry quickly led Dumbledore towards the forest and into the clearing where they met Dean, Lavender and Madam Pomfrey. The group had hurried down the grounds and enter the forest abruptly. When they reached the clearing the students parted to let them through.

"Oh my!" Madam Pomfrey exclaimed in a panicking tone as she saw Kurama's mangled body. She conjured a stretcher and Kurama floated onto it. She did some quick work to stabilize him, then she and Dumbledore led them all back to the castle. Hagrid followed them too. When they reached the school, Madam Pomfrey went to the hospital wing, Dumbledore ushered them into the Great Hall.

"I must ask that none of you try to visit Mr. Riddle until at least tomorrow. From how Madam Pomfrey reacted, I believe that he may be in grave peril. Please do not recall any of today's ill happenings in detail to our younger students. Finish your classes for today if you feel up to it. A sight like that can disturb a person and if you need to recover from the sight, then feel free to skip class. I will inform your professors about your exclusion. I trust all of you to do what I have asked."

Dumbledore motioned for Hagrid to follow him and they left in the direction of the hospital wing.

* * *

_Don't be scared, Riddle, I'm your father. Just look me in the eye. Look!_

"Don't look him in the eye yet!" Kurama heard Hagrid shout, but he was immediately lost as he nodded.

The world blurred and he was plunged into a dream-like state.

"So, you felt brave enough to look into the horse's eyes, you aren't the coward I thought you became." A voice rang around Kurama. He looked around, he could see no one, and he wasn't in the paddock anymore. He was in a dark park-like place. The streetlamps were shimmering, and the tree branches rolled in the strong wind.

"Where—where are you?" He stuttered, "Who are you?"

"Ah, I guess you really don't remember. That's too bad; I think you might be better off figuring it out on you own." The voice said, obviously toying with him.

"That doesn't answer my question." He shouted defiantly into the cloudy sky. The moon shone from its position sticking out of the black clouds, and could only add to the dreary and frightening mood of the dream.

"I am me, I am where I am." The voice riddled out to him in a mocking tone. Kurama shivered, the cold, damp air clinging to his body.

"That doesn't answer my question!"

"Yes it does." The voice crooned. The moon emerged from the clouds almost instantly and suddenly there was light. Lots of it. The wind died down and it suddenly became warm.

* * *

Kurama lay on his back, his shirt removed. A lot of the wounds had been either healed or shrunk. His mouth no longer bled uncontrollably, but his chest was still torn up quite a bit, and was bandaged tightly.

Madam Pomfrey stood solemnly over him. She looked at Dumbledore, a worried look in her eyes. "I need to remove all the spells on him; he's covered in layers and layers of them. God knows he's probably controlled right now. I will only be able to keep the healing spells I cast on him, will you assist me?" she asked the old headmaster.

"Yes, Poppy, just tell me when." He moved over to the other side of the bed in a quick swoosh of his clock. Madam Pomfrey nodded and they both cast their spell.

They gasped as a bright red colour ran into the dark black colour of his hair soon removing all traces his hair had ever been black, to leave a red brighter than that of a Weasley. Many scars soon were visible; including what looked left of a stab wound around his stomach, and a long jagged one noticeable, yet faded with age on his face.

Madam Pomfrey gasped in shock; she lifted his left arm and showed the muscled damage to his wrist. "He's been _crucio-_ed a couple of times, not very long, but enough to start the muscle damage."

"Who would do this to a child?" Dumbledore asked, gesturing to Kurama's scars, completely still in shock, and not hearing Madam Pomfrey immediately. The nurse repeated herself and Dumbledore looked over to her and spoke, "Whoever it was tried to cover it all up. Go get Minerva, he's in her house." Dumbledore told Madam Pomfrey, who obliged him. She returned with McGonagall.

She gasped too when she saw him.

"Minerva, do you know anything of his-" they were interrupted by a groan from said patient. A pained look was on his face as he tried to roll over. He then started to breathe more normally. He moved his head slightly; his newly red hair fell onto his face. He was asleep.

"Poppy, please do you work while I talk to Minerva." Dumbledore spoke evenly. He told McGonagall everything that had occurred, and by the time he had finished, Madam Pomfrey had completely healed all of the significant injuries that Eric had gotten from earlier.

"He shouldn't wake until tomorrow morning, earliest." She told them seriously, "I will allow five minute visits when he wakes up. Until then he is off limits."

"I will tell the students." Dumbledore nodded.

* * *

Through out the entire meal students were giving the head table quick glances, then their eyes would shoot over to the Gryffindor table, then back to the head table. Obviously, rumours had been spread, both true and false. It went on like this until Dumbledore stood and clapped his hands, quieting the chatter.

"As some of you have noticed Mr. Riddle in not at the Gryffindor table. He has been injured, and Madam Pomfrey is allowing no visitors until he wakes up. Have a good evening." He finished.

"Do you still have your cloak?" Hermione asked quietly as the jabbering of their classmates resumed. Harry nodded to Hermione.

"Yeah, tonight, when everyone is asleep, we'll go see Eric."


	6. VI: In Which Red Hair Manifests Itself

* * *

Kittenn: Sorry for the wait, all. Really. It's been a couple months!

Elmo: I don't really care. And they don't want to hear the excuses, so move on with the disclaimer.

Kittenn: Sorry. Anyways, I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or Harry Potter.

* * *

**Murphy's Law**

YYHHP: Kurama always thought his human family were normal, that was, until his step-father got a job offer for Hogwarts! As a "muggle" though, he ends up a Smeltings. There, the unthinkable happens!

* * *

**Adopted from Kait1991**

* * *

_Before I start: I do know what Voldemort's middle name is, so don't comment on the fact that Kurama says "Benjamin", and not Marvalo. He is trying to hold a cover, you know._

* * *

**VI: I n Which Red Hair Manifests Itself on Kurama's Head**

* * *

"Ow!" Hermione hissed at the two others under the invisibility cloak, "One of you two numbskulls stepped on my foot again!"

"Wasn't me!" Ron quipped with a grin.

"Shut it, both of you!" Harry ordered tensely, afraid his loud friends would get them caught headed towards the hospital wing. When they reached the door Harry quietly opened it. They saw the one bed curtained off. Immediately they went to that bed.

When they opened the curtain, expecting to see Eric, they saw a guy who sort of looked like Eric; only he had red hair and was covered in scars. Harry gasped in recognition. "Kurama," he mumbled in terror.

"What did that horse do to him?" Ron asked, shocked. Of course, not as shocked as poor Harry, who really thought it was Kurama.

"It wasn't the horse, it was something else. These scars are too old; most of them are, at least." Hermione said, motioning to his bare arms, "And horses don't change hair color."

"They don't make people look like other people either." Harry told his friends, "Let's get out of here." A frightened and urgent tone escaped him. They obliged and headed to Gryffindor tower in dead silence.

* * *

Harry sat down next to Ron and Hermione just as the food began to disappear. He groaned. He had slept in and missed breakfast.

"Harry, where have you been all morning?" Hermione growled, passing him the one piece of toast she saved for him.

"I slept in." Harry sighed, graciously accepting the food.

Harry quickly finished his breakfast, and then ran out of the Great Hall with Hermione and Ron. According to the two, during breakfast it was announced that they could visit Eric. They realized they couldn't make a visit before class started, so they hurried off to class. That day went by very slowly, but when it was over, they raced to the Hospital wing.

"May we see Eric?" Hermione asked Madam Pomfrey anxiously.

"Yes, but I must warn you that his appearance has changed a bit since you last saw him. We removed all spells from his person." she pointed to the curtained bed.

"Spells?" Hermione mumbled quietly in confusion, but Harry and Ron just hurried over to the curtains. She promptly followed.

"Eric, you in there?" Ron asked as Hermione slowly slid open the curtain to reveal Kurama playing solitaire with a deck of muggle cards.

He looked up and pushed red hair out of his face. It seemed to have grown an inch or two and changed colours since they last saw him the day before "Oh, hey guys!" he grinned; the scar on his cheek seemed to glisten. The scars were everywhere!

"Er… Hi, Eric." Ron said lamely.

"Yeah, hi." Harry and Hermione echoed.

"Would please stop staring at me, its rather rude, bedsides," Kurama grinned, "I'm not _that_ different, am I? I mean, scars and different hair colour… I guess my father might have been covering up something. He said he cast a few charms on me while I was out cold after the memory charm."

Hermione laughed, "Eric, you will never cease to amaze me."

"So, what I miss today, _mi Riena_? "Kurama asked Hermione, who blushed lightly. She always did seem to go for the good-looking ones, and he sure was good-looking.

"History of Magic with Ravenclaw, and Divination with Hufflepuff." She squeaked to him.

"I'm out of here tonight, after they re-charm my hair. I prefer it black, They might cover the scars too. Can I borrow your notes from HoM?" he asked.

"Sure." She breathed.

"Why didn't you ask us?" Ron asked angrily. He could sense Hermione's… well… and he didn't like it.

"Because I already know Hermione has a better work ethic!" Kurama grinned mischievously. Oh, how Hermione loved that grin of his.

Madam Pomfrey came back a shooed them away, saying Eric would find them during dinner.

* * *

Sure enough, Kurama found the Golden Trio just before dinner began. His hair was the subtle black it had been before the accident, and his scars concealed.

"Hey, guys!" he greeted with a grin as he once again brushed his hair from his face. The added length wasn't very noticeable for most, but Kurama appeared a bit annoyed with it.

"Hi!" they chorused as he sat down.

Shuiichi Hatanaka and Professor Hatanaka where staring at him weirdly. All the teachers had heard about the red hair and scars. Hatanaka probably told his son. He glanced between the two before dismissing it. He ate a quiet dinner with his three friends.

"Mr. Riddle, may I speak with you a moment?" a voice behind him said quietly. When he whipped his head to face the person he did a double take. It was Professor Hatanaka.

"Uh… sure." Kurama said, and Hatanaka motioned for his son and Eric to follow him. Kurama waved back at his friends as they walked off.

* * *

"So, what is it that you needed?" Kurama asked, giving Hatanaka a sheepish smile.

"I want you to look at something." Hatanaka told him airily. He showed them into his office. "Eric, have you ever been told that you bear a striking resemblance to a boy named Shuuichi Minamino?" The professor asked.

"Yeah, I have. By him." He pointed at Shuiichi. Shuiichi grinned.

"Anyone else?" Hatanaka peered into Kurama's eyes, as if looking for a hint of familiarity. It was like he was looking for any possible indication of a memory, one that involved Shuuichi Minamino.

"Harry Potter." He said after a moment, in a growl, while glaring into Hatanaka's eyes until the man looked away.

"Look at this picture of him." Shuiichi shoved a 5x8 photo to Kurama, who accepted it without hesitating. He gazed at the picture; it was muggle style and featured a boy a bit younger than him, who looked exactly like him. Shuuichi Minamino. Kurama shivered.

"I need to sit down."

He looked at the picture, and his eyes had widened so that you could see the white around them. He sat onto a wood chair in the corner, obviously shocked. "What?" he mumbled quietly.

"Eric, what is you mothers name, think hard." Hatanaka questioned urgently.

Kurama's eyes seemingly searched for a name. He really couldn't say anything because he wasn't given a name to tell. "I don't know, father never told me. She obviously hasn't been in my life recently, and if she mattered," a tear rolled down his cheek, "my father would have told me, wouldn't he?"

Hatanaka dropped it.

"What about your father?" Shuiichi threw out. Kurama grined.

"Thomas Benjamin Riddle," he glared at the two hardly, "You two are being unreasonable. I've heard enough of this. May I please go?" Hatanaka nodded, flinching away from the hard glare.

That wasn't his step-son. Shuuichi Minamino was calm and caring. This gaze was angry and cold.

* * *

"Hey, guys!" Kurama greeted his friends as he entered the Gryffindor tower.

"Eric, what did he want?" Hermione asked him wearily from the couch. She stood up and gave him a hug. "I'm so tired."

"Then go to bed, Hermione," Kurama laughed.

"The girl's are being loud," she moaned. Kurama just continued laughing. "Not funny," she mumbled angrily, "I didn't get much sleep last night. So, what did he want?"

"Oh, nothing. It was just that… well… with red hair; I looked so much like his stepson, apparently." Kurama said smoothly. It wasn't like it was a secret, with Harry having met Kurama and then red-haired 'Eric'. "He asked some personal questions."

"That was a little heartless. It's not your fault right?" Ron commented, earning a laugh from the other three. Harry though, had an epiphany. They did say that Shuuichi's body was never found…

Kurama yawned. "You know, after being asleep for like, an entire day, I sure am tired." Hermione, who hadn't stopped hugging him, snuggled closer, already asleep. He smiled at her. "You know, if you want to sleep on me that bad, can we at least sit down?"

Hermione opened her eyes and blushed. She murmured a, "sorry," before running off to the girl's dormitory.

Kurama smiled at her, and Ron cleared his throat.

"Ron has a thing for Hermione. You'd better back off," Harry threatened with a chuckle. Ron glared at him.

"Don't worry, Ron. Well, I'm going to bed now, care to join me?"

* * *

Kurama stayed up past the others, laying awake until he heard a soft tapping on the window. He rose and silently walked to the window and let a small owl into the room. It gave him a letter then flew back out the window. The entire thing happened in a few silent seconds, and Kurama lay on the bed in case anybody else could've been awake.

He didn't notice, but Harry watched him from his bed as he opened the late-night letter.

Kurama read the letter quickly. You couldn't have heard the shuffling of the paper, and Harry knew something must be up.

_Eric,_

_Very good, we move on Halloween. Try to get them here._

_This is your new mission: get Potter to the house, and we'll take care of the rest. _

_I don't care what happens to the other two. Kill them; bring them, whatever you can. Be sure to gain their trust._

_Father._

Eric grimaced as he read the note. He was beginning to like the Golden Trio. He decided to burn the letter in the morning, but silently opened his trunk to put it in before creeping back to his bed.

While Kurama set the letter down, Harry spoke. "Eric, is something wrong?" he asked quietly in worry, making Kurama jump and turn towards him.

He glanced and saw the new message, a fake, had replaced the first. He bit his lip and passed him the letter, "My pet dog just died, and Father wanted me to know right away." Harry nodded.

"Oh, but that could have waited until morning, couldn't it? I mean, a couple hours asleep not knowing wouldn't've killed you."

"Probably, but Mali, the owl, is faster than the rest. He probably thought the letter would arrive in the morning," Eric made a face, "He should know her tendencies by now We've had her a while."

Harry blinked. How would he know that? Didn't he loose his memory only a year or so ago?

"Night, Harry." Kurama whispered, falling into a deep sleep. Harry nodded.

"Right back acha, Eric."


	7. VII: In Which Hiei Accepts a Lower Life

Kittenn: Hey! This chapter is out faster than the last.

Elmo: Actually, we were really stuck on whether or not we should put this up, because there was a whole 1,500 words of the original between the last chapter and this one, and it was supposed to make a chapter…

Kittenn: What I did forage from it was like, a single paragraph of things with any significance.

Elmo: Let's just say that Kurama is no longer and "animangus" like in the original, and then you're caught up.

Kittenn: And what I did forage will appear next chapter as the opening, because I tried it and it works.

Elmo: Now, I'd say that was the longest disclaimer so far!

Kittenn: This is the longest chapter, though!

Elmo: Well, we don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or Harry Potter.

* * *

**Murphy's Law**

YYHHP: Kurama always thought his human family were normal, that was, until his step-father got a job offer for Hogwarts! As a "muggle" though, he ends up a Smeltings. There, the unthinkable happens!

* * *

**Adopted from Kait1991**

* * *

**VII: In Which Hiei Accepts a Lower Life Form**

* * *

"It is official; the people who created these things are insane!" Hiei muttered angrily to his companions on either side of him in low tones, gripping the sides of his chair forcefully. "If humans were supposed to fly, the gods would've given them wings! Yuusuke, does it look like Kuwabara has wings?"

"Relax Hiei; the plane will get us to England!" Yuusuke laughed, folding his arms behind his head sleepily.

"Hn." He growled loudly in distaste, not releasing any pressure.

"Attention passengers!" A cheery voice said over the intercom, "We will be landing shortly, please put all trays and seats in the upright position and buckle your safety belt. I hope you enjoyed the flight."

Kuwabara grumbled, "That guy way too perky for having just gone on a twelve hour plane ride."

The plane landed and the three guys got off it. While they walked out into the damp London night Yusuke scoffed at Hiei and said, "See, it got us here, we're on the ground!"

"Shut up, detective." Hiei barked back in response, setting his hand where his katana should be, but found only air. Hiei sneered, "Yet another reason why I dislike that damned flying machine."

"You'll get your deadly knife back when we get to the motel. What do they call it, the Leaky-Something-Or-Other? Isn't that a strange name for a motel? I mean, it really won't draw business." Yusuke gave his two companions a goofy grin. Hiei rolled his eyes

Kuwabara gave him a swift smack on his head, "It's the Leaky Caldron, you idiot." Kuwabara told his best friend, "Even you could remember that, Urameshi!"

"Oh, yeah," he grinned again, "I think I remember that!" Hiei closed his eyes, irritated. The trio walked to the place where Koenma had told them their motel was located, and found an empty alleyway.

"Well, that's weird. Koenma doesn't make mistakes." Kuwabara said, squinting like something would appear if he looked more careful.

Hiei looked over to Kuwabara, and then Yusuke. "There's something there… but it seems like if it's being hidden. I'm not familiar with the frequency it's running on."

Yusuke and Kuwabara blinked. "Frequency?" They questioned at the same time. Hiei looked back irritably.

"It's not reiki or youki." He snapped. Both boys nodded in unison. Hiei closed his eyes again, and the Jagan gave off a faint glow under his headband. "I think I can temporarily override the cloaking, but because of the humans, I can't guarantee anything, because they might see something."

"Ouch," Kuwabara mumbled. Hiei's eyes snapped open.

"We've got ten seconds. If either of you mess up, I won't come back for you." Hiei paused, "NOW!"

The three ran for the momentarily visible building. Hiei was the first in and Yusuke made a close second. Kuwabara was there at the eight. Inside it looked just like any pub, a bar and a bunch of tables. Hiei snorted.

"It doesn't seem like much to be hiding under that complex of an illusion. These are some of the most disgusting humans I've ever seen. Including Kuwabara."

(Though ignored by both Hiei and Yusuke, Kuwabara had yelled, "Hey!")

Yusuke chuckled and responded, "Maybe that's why the building is hidden."

"Hn."

"C'mon, Hiei! That was funny! Don't just, HN, at me!" Yusuke yelled.

Hiei faced Yusuke and smirked, taunting him with a, "Hn."

"Can I help you?" a man called from behind the bar as they got closer.

"Hai, er, yes. We 'ave… rooms ," Yusuke said, in broken English, being the supposedly brave speaker of the trip. In actuality, he was the only one who knew any English at all. Kuwabara never had a grasp on languages besides his own, and Hiei was Hiei.

"Names?" he asked in his deep accent.

"Urameshi, Kuwabara, Hiei." Yusuke replied. Tom nodded as he picked up a paper with room numbers and dates written on it.

"Follow me." The man led them down a hall and handed Yusuke a key. "The room will be crowded with three. It's only got two small beds."

Yusuke glanced over to Hiei, and then to Kuwabara. "We be good."

The next morning the three stuck out like a sore thumb, Yusuke wore a t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans, Kuwabara a white polo and khakis, and Hiei wore what he always wore. Were you expecting otherwise?

"So, now that we're in England, and we know the language and accent were English, where are we to go from here? And why did Koenma send us to a cloaked motel?" Yusuke pondered. Hiei grunted in agreement.

"Maybe there's something we're missing. Something he knows about Kurama's whereabouts that he's not telling us." Kuwabara suggested, "And this pub's cloaking has something to do with it."

"We're going to have to figure out what this mystery thing is," Yusuke decided, "Hiei, tell us exactly what you told Koenma about the dream. Maybe if we pinpoint what made him send us here…"

Hiei cut him off, "I drew out what was on the book cover. I described both Kurama and the other boy in detail, and the language Kurama was mumbling in." Then he went back to picking at the food in front of him.

Yusuke and Kuwabara both began to think.

"Do you still remember what the book cover had on it?" Kuwabara asked. Hiei nodded and the redhead handed him a piece of paper, "write it. And stop picking at your food if you're not going to eat it."

_Standard Book of Spells Grade Seven_

"Spells?" Yusuke asked after he read the words out loud and translated. He struggled, of course, but he managed.

"Grade seven? I may not be an expert on English people, but I'm pretty sure grade seven is pretty low on the ladder." Kuwabara commented.

Yusuke pulled out a pink compact which the rest recognized at once.

"We haven't used those since Botan took them after my first mission," Kuwabara stated, "Where'd you get it?"

"I snitched it from Botan's detective tool case."

Yusuke flipped it open and Koenma appeared on the screen. He jumped.

"Yusuke?" He asked.

"So little toddler, explain and tell us where the hell to go!"

* * *

"I spoke to Tom; we need to 'floo' to Hogsmead's pub, Three Broomsticks. That's the closest place to the wizarding school, Hogwarts." Yusuke told them.

"Well, then, lets go!" Kuwabara answered.

"I figured you'd say that, Tom 'owled' the owner and got us rooms there for the week, after that if we haven't found him we might as well get an apartment and look." Yusuke sighed, glancing at Hiei and Kuwabara, "But before we go there, we need to buy clothes like what these people wear. We stand out to much, Tom tells me."

"Ok, let's go then." Kuwabara said replied, "I just hope that place isn't as musty!"

Hiei just spat him usual "hn" and followed the pair to Diagon Alley. About an hour later the three walked out of Madam Malken's dressed like real wizards, Yusuke in green, Kuwabara blue, and Hiei in black.

Then they all headed to a contact of Koenma to get some fake wands.

"Well then," the trio stood around the fireplace at the Leaky Caldron, "Just drop the powder and say very clearly 'Three Broomsticks', do you boys got it?" he asked, and Yusuke quickly translated the best he could.

When the other two nodded, he went back to the bar.

"Three Broomsticks!"

* * *

Yusuke sneezed as he climbed out of the fireplace at Three Broomsticks. A woman stood over him.

"You here from Tom?" she asked him.

"Yeah," he said shortly, backing away from the fireplace as a very angry Hiei appeared, and next came Kuwabara

"I'll show you to your room. I close the doors at midnight, so be back by then." They followed her down the hall, "here's room 10. Have a nice stay." She left them a key and walked off.

"Well, that was interesting!" Kuwabara announced as they entered the room. "But I never want to do it again."

"Too bad, Kuwabara! We're going to have to get back to London eventually, and I don't see any towns nearby." Yusuke snapped and gestured towards the window. All that the eye could see was empty land and a castle in the distance.

"His mother is supposed to live around here, so be on the look out, and avoid her at all costs. She still thinks he's dead. And if we don't find him, it has to stay that way. Do whatever, be back by midnight." Yusuke dumped his bag and passed out on the left bed. The other two left and split up immediately.

* * *

Hiei was jumping between the tree branches. He finally stopped when he located the home of Shiori Hatanaka. He saw her tending a garden in the back. He could help but let a small smile escape his lips. He understood why Kurama loved her so much. She was a sweet hearted woman.

Shiori was humming softly as she weeded her garden. It was filled with the plants her son had given her and that which had been in his room, (which probably wasn't the safest thing around). The entire back wall was roses. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and looked out into the forest where Hiei had been until a split second before.

She could've sworn somebody was watching her.

* * *

Kuwabara wandered around Hogsmead aimlessly.

He had wandered into Huneydukes earlier and purchased some chocolate frogs to harass Hiei with later. But now, he was just taking in the sites. He stopped by a pet store to pet the kittens before he went back to Three Broomsticks.

"Sir; would you like to buy one?" asked a voice behind him as he was holding a small calico cat with green eyes. He looked down at her.

"I no speak English. No understand." He said sheepishly in his heavy accent as he rubbed the back of his head. He went back to petting the little cat.

After a while he walked up to the man who spoke to him and held out some money with a questioning look on his face.

"Five sickles," he held up five fingers with one hand and showed Kuwabara a sickle with the other. Kuwabara reaching into his pocket and handed the man five sickles.

"Idiot, what are you doing?" Hiei asked from behind Kuwabara when the redhead exited the store, causing him to jump.

"Don't do that! I was just getting a cat…" he trailed off as the little calico started to rub herself on Hiei, "Oh look! She likes you!" and Hiei hit him over the head with his katana.

"Didn't Yusuke confiscate that? I don't remember him returning it…"

"I stole it back!"

Hiei picked up the cute kitten and looked at her, "She'll do." He muttered and Kuwabara smiled.

* * *

Yusuke sat at the bar, absently stirring his drink when Kuwabara and Hiei entered the tavern, bickering. This time, Kuwabara had been teasing him about the cat, Hina, (for his mother).

"You two get anything substantial? We've been here nearly a week, and have very little to show for it." Yusuke sighed, glancing at the pair. The bickering stopped and they both shook their heads.

"Still nothing." Hiei retorted like he always did. This was the fifth time they'd had this conversation, and they had two others very similar.

"I got something useful; that school's sending its kids here tomorrow, perfect time to ask about them about him. According to Koenma, Hatanaka teaches there, and Chibi-Shuiichi gets taught there." Kuwabara said, using his old pet name for Kurama's little brother.

"We'll have go on that, then. Hopefully we'll get a lead." Yusuke sighed, digging through his pocket for the gold to pay for his drink.

"Well," Hiei spoke, "the human was wearing robes with a crest on them, so I could bet that it's that school's crest or something."

"Point out the people in those robes."

"Excuse me." the bar maid, Madam Rosmerta said. "I couldn't help but over hear you talking, you're looking for someone?"

"Yeah, but I doubt you'll have seen him around here, nobody else has." Yusuke told her, perturbed at the eavesdropping.

"Well, if he's a fourth year or higher, I've more than likely met him on at least one occasion if he was around here. Describe him to me; I'll keep a look out for him for you."

"Well," Kuwabara started to speak but was interrupted by Hiei.

"He's about 155 centimetres tall, green eyes, bright red hair, and he's fairly soft spoken. Seventh year, we think," He grumbled out.

"155 centimetres?" she asked, used to standard measurements, as opposed to the metric system.

"5'1''," Hiei snapped back before stomping towards the rooms mumbling about ignorant fools.

"Sorry about him," Kuwabara smiled, "He's just angry we haven't found him yet. Thanks. I mean, for looking for our friend."

"What's his name? If I know I can ask around with the students."

"Shuichi, though he sometimes goes by Kurama." Yusuke told her, placing the gold on the bar counter, "Keep the change."

He grabbed Kuwabara's arm and dragged him to their room.

"Wait," Kuwabara said as they began to change, "she was speaking Japanese!" Yusuke rolled his eyes.

"Apparently, she can speak a lot of languages. I learned that when I accidentally ordered in Japanese. It's useful, having somebody other than you two to talk to!"

They were asleep almost as soon as they were in the beds.


	8. VIII: In Which There's a Chilling Scream

* * *

Kittenn: Hello, and welcome to Chapter Eight of Murphey's Law. The next chapter will be the last one that is from Kait1991, and it will be about... 1,168 words. Well, it will be an edited version of Kait1991's final 1,168 words. It fells like so long ago that I adopted this... it's so far in now. So many things are happening.

Elmo: To finish up this author's note, we're anouncing how many chapters, aproximatly, the this story will have.

Kittenn: I'm able to wrap it up in by chapter ten, and so far I don't think it'll exceed fifteen chapters... Ok? Maybe it'll be a bit more than fifteen if I can think up a way to keep it going a bit longer...

Elmo: Finally, one thing to remember, when the tantei speak to each other, it's in Japanese. ONLY YUSUKE CAN SPEAK ENGLISH!

**

* * *

**

Murphy's Law

YYHHP: Kurama always thought his human family were normal, that was, until his step-father got a job offer for Hogwarts! As a "muggle" though, he ends up a Smeltings. There, the unthinkable happens!

* * *

Adopted from Kait1991

* * *

**There's somthing new that I did this chapter: I threw in some Japanese words. This is only because Yusuke is speaking English in these parts, and he throws in these Japanese words. It's nothing major, just...**

**

* * *

****VIII: In Which There is a Chilling Scream**

Kurama woke a before his roommates on Hogsmead weekend. He was buttoning his shirt up when Ron began to stir. The demon froze, out of habit. The redhead rubbed his eyes groggily and opened them widely when he saw Kurama's chest, because there a large scar lay It looked like an old stab wound on his abdomen.

"Ron, you got a staring problem, man?" Kurama asked nervously. Ron shook his head and looked up to Kurama's face to reply.

"Where'd you get that?"

"I got stabbed, okay?" Kurama snapped at him irritably, finishing buttoning up, and quickly tied his tie. Then, swiftly, he left the room as everybody else awoke.

As he glided out, Ron could only think of one thing. That scar, and that he knew he got stabbed. That scar looked years old.

* * *

Yusuke woke the morning of the students' arrival very early, which was quite unlike him and to his even greater surprise Hiei and Kuwabara were already awake and watching him sleep.

"Hey," he greeted, putting on a new outfit, "Lets get some breakfast before we start the interrogation of students," he grinned and Hiei glared.

The seated themselves in one corner where they ate in silence, watching the trickle of teens as the morning progressed into afternoon. They really didn't pay any attention to them after they looked at the unfamiliar faces until a quartet came and sat at a nearby table.

They laughed as the red haired boy said something.

One of the black haired boys looked very familiar to them all, but Yusuke and Kuwabara couldn't point out why.

"It's him." Hiei said to the two, Kuwabara and Yusuke looked over at him shocked, and then demanded, "Who?"

"Black hair green eyes, no scar." He replied, "It couldn't be more obvious."

Kuwabara and Yusuke stared at him, before Kuwabara rebuked him, "This is Kurama we're looking for, right? Kurama would have never cut his hair, let alone dye it. We have to have the wrong guy."

"No, it's him. Yusuke, listen to the conversation, they might reveal something." Hiei ordered. The only English-speaking member of the group rolled his eyes and glanced over.

"Ron, you are an idiot." The girl told the red haired boy, causing the other two to laugh.

"I am not! Its all Harry's fault we did it anyway. I was just playing sidekick!" Ron defended himself.

"Hey!" the scared boy, Harry, defended.

"Guys, please don't get blood on the table!" Kurama laughed; holding up his hands to separate them.

"Stay out of this Eric!" Harry and Ron said in unison, glaring at him. Kurama rolled his trademark bright green eyes.

Yusuke motioned over to their tabled, "They called him Eric, Not Kurama or Shuichi or any other alias he's ever used. Kurama doesn't change up his aliases very often, he told me it's because it guarantees he responds when somebody talks. It's not him."

"No, it's the right one. This is definitely Kurama." Kuwabara defended, "His voice is just like his, and I've never met someone else with a voice even remotely like it. It's him."

"I'm stand with my decision," Hiei said.

"What do we do?" Kuwabara asked their self-appointed leader.

"We wait."

* * *

The four teens stood out in the rustling leaves laughing. Madam Rosemerta evidently didn't approve of horseplay in her pub.

"Harry! Ron how could you? She may not let us back in for the rest of the year!" Hermione scoffed.

"'Mione! We could probably com back later if we wanted to!" Harry laughed, making Hermione glare.

"Don't be so—so ugh! Don't be so you!" She demanded.

"Um…. Impossible there!" Ron piped in.

"He has a point," Kurama started, "I mean, if he's not Harry, who is he? I don't know about you, but I don't want two Rons running around." Hermione looked him up, trying to figure out if he was joking or not

"Fine, let's just go shop. C'mon Eric. You're with me!" she grabbed Kurama's arm and dragged him to a nearby store.

Behind them, Ron and Harry burst out into another laughing fit.

* * *

By the time Yusuke got Kuwabara to stand still enough for Madam Rosemerta to clean him up the group had split up, Kurama and the girl, Hermione, going one way, and the fighters, Harry and Ron, another.

"Kuwabara. Follow them," Yusuke waved towards Ron and Harry, "Hiei," he looked around; the tiny demon had already disappeared. "Okay… I'll follow Kurama." Yusuke mumbled, "Hiei, go do whatever the hell you want, man."

* * *

When Yusuke found Kurama and Hermione they were both looking at books. Figures.

"'Mione, Are you positive that Ron wants a talking planner?" Kurama asked her sceptically.

"Yes, he needs to be organized, and I don't think I should give up on him now." She responded, adding it to the pile under her arm.

"If you say so," he sighed. "But don't get me one." Glancing in Yusuke's direction, he quickly pulled out a book and pretended to read it, not noticing it was upside down. He grabbed Hermione's arm and led her around the shelf.

"Hey!" she said in a loud whisper. "What?"

He looked around again as he put a finger on her mouth, a universal sign for 'shut the hell up'.

"We're being followed," he whispered. "That guy from the pub. Be silent, let's pay and get out of here."

She nodded, readjusted the pile in her arms for a second, then Kurama nodded sharply over his shoulder, Yusuke having rounded the corner..

"Play along." He whispered, slipping his free hand into hers. Hermione's face turned bright red at this.

She gripped his hand tightly, allowing him to steer her up to the desk. As Kurama set the books up on the desk, she leaned up against him, catching a glance of the foreign teen out of the corner of her eye.

The cashier finished adding up their purchases. "One galleon, three sickles and a knut is your total." He said cheerfully.

Hermione let go of Kurama's hand and reached for her purse, but he stopped her, "I'll cover it," he told her, with a sweet smile, setting his arm across her shoulders. He handed the gold to the cashier and grabbed the bag in his hand. As he led Hermione to the door, he slipped his hand back into hers.

When they got outside they saw Harry and Ron sitting on a bench across the door, and another one of the Asian guys nearby. This one was petting a tiny cat and looking away from the two boys, and looking at them from the corner of his eye.

Ron and Harry's eyes threatened to fall out of their heads when they saw Kurama and Hermione's hands entwined. "Follow us," Kurama mouthed to them. Ron and Harry got up and walked over, wondering what was going on.

"When I say, run," he told them softly, getting a good grip on the bag and send a quick look over his shoulder. The Asians had met up and where now following the Gryffindors. "Now!" The group took off, the Asians running just after.

They rounded a corner and were within sight of the Shrieking Shack when they saw a third Asian appear in front of them. Hiei, that is.

"Shit!" Ron yelled, "Stop!" the group stopped running and reached for their wands, not finding them, causing all of them to curse angrily. The small Asian in front of them held up four wands. The other two had by now formed a circle around them. The four set up with their backs to each other defensively.

"Kuso! Why you run?" one of them asked loudly. He was answered by glares of Kurama and the Golden Trio. "Fine! Be that way." he muttered in Japanese when they didn't answer.

"Yusuke, shut up." the smallest, Hiei, ordered, in his native tongue too.

" "What do you want?" snapped Kurama coldly.

"Well—" started Kuwabara.

"We want you," Yusuke interrupted. His English was very forced and Kurama wished for a moment he could speak to them in Japanese.

"You can't have him!" Hermione stood stable beside Kurama as she yelled to the Spirit Detectives

"Why?" This came from Kurama.

"Because." Yusuke said simply, "You to come home with us! Say 'gomen' to you Mom, brother and Dad!" The next part was just spoken in Japanese. "Then you can do what ever the hell you want."

"I don't have a mother! Or a Brother!"

"Yes you do," Yusuke answered, equally stubborn. "You baka!"

During the exchange between Yusuke and Kurama, Ron had been plotting.

He launched himself at Kuwabara, and Harry, figuring what was going on, at Yusuke, both being subdued within seconds.

"Stay safe, 'Mione!" Kurama said, going in to get his friends out of the pummelling they volunteered for, and the second he was out of reach of Hermione, Hiei moved in a grabbed her.

"Stop fighting, or she will be hurt!" Hiei ordered angrily in Japanese, putting his hand on her neck.

Kurama turned around and glared at the fire demon, preparing to do just about anything to get Hermione back before he hurt her. Then he turned away in shock.

A single loud, shrill scream had echoed eerily from the center of village before the others screams began to fill the air.


	9. IX: In Which Kurama had a Stupid Plan

Kittenn: Okay, here it is: the last chapter that was once Kait1991's! I tried hard to get this out as fast as I could!

Elmo: She's happy to be able to finally be able write it herself.

Kittenn: I promise you guys a chapter before next Monday! I really can't wait to write the next one, because I have big plans from now on!

Elmo: HUGE PLANS!

Kittenn: Lastly, this chapter wasn't even two-thousand words… only about 1,600… I just wanted to make a clean cut between where Kait1991 left off and where I start. I wanted to have her last chapter be ten… but I did not have a lot to work with. This chapter started with only 900 words… so I say that I did well.

Elmo: Actually, I have one thing to say. Can you guys please review? Kittenn usually hates asking, but she enjoys constructive critique, and even a little bit of encouragement is nice, so I won't say it again… I promise… but could you please review?

* * *

**Murphy's Law**

YYHHP: Kurama always thought his human family were normal, that was, until his step-father got a job offer for Hogwarts! As a "muggle" though, he ends up a Smeltings. There, the unthinkable happens!

* * *

**Adopted from Kait1991**

* * *

**IX: In Which Kurama had a Very Stupid Plan**

* * *

"What the hell was that?" yelled Kuwabara to his allies a second or so after the noise, shoving Ron away. The other two followed suit, releasing their captives. Hiei flicked their wands back.

The three took one more glance at Kurama before running off towards the sound.

"What's going on?" Yusuke wondered out loud as they ran in sync with each other.

Kuwabara shrugged, "I don't know. Do you think we should help?" By this time, they'd reached the chaos, which truly was chaos.

"No," Hiei stated flatly as screaming wizards ran by him, "this isn't our problem. We're here for Kurama."

"Then why'd we run?"

Hiei rolled his eyes at Kuwabara's question. "If we didn't react then they'd be suspicious."

"I don't know about you two," Yusuke mused, "but if I was them, I'd think we were involved in causing this right about now."

In a blink, Hiei was gone.

"Okay. C'mon Kuwabara. Let's run for our lives."

"But whoever sent these people screaming probably wouldn't be able to hurt us…"

"Yeah, but these screaming people don't know that. Pretend to be one of the screaming people."

* * *

"You guys all right?" Kurama asked, distributing the correct wands to the correct people.

"Yeah," Hermione said, rubbing her neck. "I think so."

"We should go help!" Harry said, jumping up from his spot on the ground that Yusuke had thrown him to. "I'd put money on Voldemort having something to do with this!"

Ron jumped up from his own place on the ground. "Yeah!"

"Not without us," Hermione said as Kurama helped her to her feet. She gave him a quick "thanks" and looked to where they heard the loud shriek.

Quickly as he could, Harry took off with Ron in tow. Eric grabbed Hermione's hand and dragged her off behind the other two boys and Harry lead the other three to an alley and they crouched down behind a few crates.

Death Eaters were swarming around and dead people's corpses lied everywhere you looked. Harry shuddered.

"We need to get any students or-" he started as they saw what was happening.

"No," Kurama cut Harry off, "you all need to get out of here! I'll stop them; you guys get out of here." His tone was worried and urgent. He bit his lip and mumbled once again, "I'll stop them," to convince himself.

"We can't just leave you!" Hermione gasped, Ron and Harry agreeing indefinitely.

Kurama smiled as them softly, "Don't worry; they won't touch me… I think, at least. After all," he sighed now, "I am a Death Eater Son."

He jumped over the crates before they could continue to protest and walked around the corner and out of sight.

"Eric!" Ron whispered immediately, popping his head up over the crate, only to be dragged back down.

"No, If Eric is so determined to sacrifice himself for us to escape, we need to leave." Hermione said, her eyes tearing up at the thought of never seeing her new friend again.

"Let's go," Harry sighed, leading them back around the building. They saw a group of Hogwarts students huddled together, and joined them as they all walked carefully towards the school.

* * *

After Kurama jumped over the crate away from his friends, he had walked to the nearest Death Eater.

"It's me," he whispered, and paused, choosing his words carefully, "It's Eric Riddle. Take me to my father."

The man behind the mask gasped, then grabbed Kurama's arm and led him to the main square, straight to the largest group of the cloaked people, and in it was only one without a mask. Voldemort.

Kurama shook his arm free from the Death Eater and knelt on one knee before the snake-like man, "Father, greetings." He said clearly.

"Rise, child," hissed the man. "You have done well, but is you cover compromised?"

"No, but, I will probably be assumed dead," Kurama answered, standing up tall.

"Why then, have you come here?" snarled the man in anger. "You are of no use to me assumed dead."

"To maintain my cover, milord. I was with a group that wished to fight you: Harry Potter's group. If I was seen there are a few Death Eaters that would be very thrilled to see me suffer. They would have blown my cover with them." Kurama paused carefully, "and speaking of my cover, that crazy old man should be arriving any time now with all sorts of reinforcements. I should be 'taken care of'. " Kurama grinned his trademark mischievous smile, making air quotes.

The man grinned evilly back, "You really are my son, you know," then set his wand on the boy,. "_Crucio_!" Kurama's screams rose above the silence of the Death Eaters, echoing in the trees. He was under the curse for nearly two minutes by the time Dumbledore arrived.

"Let the boy go!" Dumbledore ordered.

Voldemort complied, taking the spell off, leaving the willing victim unconscious and twitching on the ground at his feet.

"Well, Albus, you seem to be a bit late." Voldemort said pleasantly as he could, grinning evilly before disapparating. The Death Eaters followed suit.

Albus Dumbledore sighed, "Assess damages and casualties!" he yelled to his reinforcements, running towards his fallen student. He cautiously rolled him over. Kurama seemed to be still feeling the after pain of the curse he was just subjected to. "Idiot boy!" the Headmaster scolded, summoning a stretcher and floating it after him.

* * *

"You know, Kurama's an idiot right now." Kuwabara said, leaning up against the wall of the pub they had ducked into when the aurors arrived.

"Yeah, I agree. He never did anything like that for us!" Yusuke whined back.

Hiei shook his head, "There was something up. He was too calm."

"You got that too?" Yusuke asked quietly. "He had something up his sleeve. I know it."

* * *

The Golden Trio stood with some of the other older students to protect the younger in their ever growing group. Professor McGonagall had come a little while ago and told them to go to the carriages immediately. Before she left Harry, touched her arm, "Professor, we got separated from Eric in all the confusion. Have you seen him?"

"I haven't yet, but if I do I'll tell him you asked for him," she said, a sad and worried look in her eyes before rushing off back into the village.

"C'mon," Ron spoke up to ease the silence that had overtaken them, the trio taking up the rear cart. The ride back to the castle was silent, almost foreboding.

They left the carriage and escorted the younger Gryffindors to the common room. There they found Neville, Ginny and Dean watching the door eagerly.

"Ron!" Ginny said, throwing her arms happily around her brother. "I thought you were dead!"

"Ginny, I'm fine, it's Eric… he did something really stupid…"

"Got himself hurt doing something stupid?" it was Dean who spoke now. "Seamus broke his arm trying to get out of the tree he had climbed before the attack. Fell out, he did." Dean grinned slightly. "He's down in the Hospital Wing, but he's non-life threatening." He shook his head he finished, "Some kid got himself Crucio-ed real bad though; I didn't see much but I could tell that kind of scream anywhere."

"What did you see? We heard someone scream just before it got really quiet," Hermione pushed.

"Crucio isn't the curse you want used on you for long…"

Dean shuddered at Neville's cryptic response before saying, "It was a guy, I hear, around our age, Hufflepuff or Gryffindor, somebody told me they saw yellow on his robes" He frowned. "Do you think its Eric?"

Hermione nodded grimly, the group sitting at the couches near the fire, always glancing at the portrait hole whenever it opened, waiting to see if one of their friends came through it.

People would join them. Whenever somebody came in alone, they'd ask about their friends, and if their friends hadn't returned they'd sit too and wait.

By the time that Professor McGonagall came through it with Seamus at midnight, there was only a small group there: Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny (asleep on the couch), and a couple others.

A grim look was on their Head's face. Seamus scurried over, joining his friends, a frightened look on his face.

She began, "Everyone under fifth year, please got to bed now. Anybody you're waiting for should be back before morning." The few younger students still awake complied. There were a couple asleep on the floor too, but the others woke them up.

The second they were all up the stairs McGonagall set up a silencing charm then readdressed them, "There have been no deaths from our house but," she paused. A couple people looked around worriedly, expecting her to announce the deaths from other houses, which they were almost sure there were. "Eric Riddle has been transferred to St. Mungos, for injuries in the attack. He may not be joining us for several months."

She turned to leave, setting an envelope on the table beside the portrait hole, but stopped, turning to address them once more.

"He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named attacked Hogsmeade, and all trips are cancelled until further notice." She left.

The room was so silent you could have heard a pin drop. This lasted about a minute before Hermione's soft sobs broke it. Ron reached over and wrapped his arms around her.

"Don't worry Hermione, Eric will be just fine." He tipped her head up and wiped away a tear. Hermione pushed her face into his shoulder.

Though her words were muffled, both Ron and Harry could hear her whisper, "But what if he doesn't come back?"


	10. X: In Which Plans Begin to Crumble

Let's just skip to the chase . I'm sorry. I have no excuse. Now on with the show!

* * *

Classes went on as usual.

Every day the Golden Trio would go to their classes like nothing happened. They wouldn't talk about their missing friend at meals, but every day after dinner they'd go see Professor McGonagall and ask about Kurama.

McGonagall had soon gotten into the habit of asking for daily updates on Kurama from St. Mungo's.

Apparently, Kurama was improving. This was good news.

School was slow and boring, and nothing of interest happened, besides the miracle in portions on day, when Neville was called on and he actually answered a question right. It was a question about the plant in a potion… but c'mon, he got it right. That's got to count for something.

Before they knew it, Christmas came after two months of nothing.

Harry and Hermione had once again been invited to the Burrow for the holidays.

"Hey Mr. Weasly, remember when we went to go see you in St. Mungo's?"

Mr. Weasly raised his eyebrow. "How could I forget?"

Harry smiled sheepishly back to him before he spoke, "Well, could we visit Eric is St. Mungo's?"

At his suggestion, Mr. Weasly shrugged. "Sure, I guess. We could go tomorrow if you guys really want. Just let me talk to Molly about it."

"Thanks Mr. Weasly."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione paraded happily into Kurama's room. He smiled to them as they walked in, and he began to twitch slightly.

"Hey guys!" he exclaimed after the twitching ended. Ron grimaced.

Hermione, on the other hand, hurried over to him. "Was that normal?" she worried. Kurama laughed, and his fingers jerked from their place on his lap. He grabbed her hand.

"Yeah. The Healers have been saying that the curse did some damage to my nerves…" his lip twitched this time, "and their going to fix it soon." Hermione squeezed his hand as it shuddered around hers.

"What was it like?" Ron blurted out without thinking. Hermione glared at him, but Kurama laughed again.

"It was horrible."

Kurama didn't expand on this. Harry gave Ron a quick glare too, before beginning his well-thought out question for Kurama. "What about after you woke up in the hospital. Nobody gave us any details."

Kurama closed his eyes for a moment, thinking. It had been horrible in the hospital too. "I lost my memory of everything for the first week or so, and then it came back up to the few minutes before…" he paused. They had done so many tests on him during that time looking for eternal damage. "Then I was really… weird. I felt really weird, and I acted really weird. It was like I wasn't conscious of anything I was doing. Now, I feel fine, and they've fixed all eternal damage except the twitch. I should be back after the holidays."

Hermione leaned over and hugged him.

"Thank God! We've met people who were tortured into insanity by that curse!" Hermione cooed over him. She had really not wanted him to leave them like that, because of one moment of stupidity.

Kurama laughed, "I can assure you that I am perfectly alright." Twitch. Hermione raised her eyebrow and Kurama just rolled his eyes. "At least, for the most part."

Yusuke groaned. "I'm bored," he complained. "Why weren't we allowed a Christmas holiday? We know where he is, and we know that we can't get to him… so why are we here?"

"Because Hiei didn't want to take a flight back home for the holidays and have to come back… and Koenma isn't going to let him stay here alone…" Kuwabara replied. Yusuke had asked that question twenty times a day and his answer was quite routine.

He shot an angry glare at Hiei, who shrugged. "We didn't waste all this time, you know."

Kuwabara shrugged. "Yeah. We did find a passage into that crazy ruin that they call a school—"

"It's cloaked," Hiei reminded him. "It's not a ruin up close."

The human ignored his companions interruption, "— and when students are back at the school we've got a plan to break in and figure out what's going on."

Yusuke sighed. "We need Kurama to be there though. How are we to know if he's even there?"

Hiei tapped his third eye and smirked. Then he said, "And he couldn't have been in a human hospital that long."

Kuwabara nodded. "How could he? He has faster healing than a human… if he was trying to block it, it would be slower than a human though…"

Yusuke looked to Hiei, "He can't do that subconsciously, can he?"

"No."

Looking around for Kurama, Harry, Ron and Hermione boarded the train back to the school. They didn't see him right away, but he was sitting calmly in their usual compartment with a smile on his face.

"Hey," he said.

Hermione was so happy that she hugged him. He laughed. "We've been so worried about you," she said. "Ron and Harry said that you wouldn't be back by the time you said you were. They said you were lying to calm me down."

Harry and Ron shook their heads quickly behind her back. Kurama laughed more. "I missed you guys!" He looked from them to the girl. "Now 'Mione… get off me… can't… breathe…"

She jumped back, blushing, and Harry and Ron took their turn to laugh.

"Okay… time to make our move?" Yusuke asked his companions.

"Time to go," Kuwabara replied and they took off down the tunnel.

"So I found the Marauder's Map at Ron's place. I can't believe I forgot it there... I thought it was lost in my trunk…"

"The what?" Kurama inquired and Harry pulled out his second most prized possession. "It shows the real name and location of everybody in the school. _I solemnly swear that I am up to no good. _See there's us—"

The Map did show them. At least, Ron, Hermione, and Harry. What it didn't show was Eric Riddle.

"Shuuichi Minamino…" Harry trailed off, looking to the boy in question.

Kurama stared at it. "You mean that… that's me..?"

"Apparently so," Harry said, his eyes on the name. "The Map never lies…"

"Missing and presumed dead a year ago," Hermione said. "When did you loose your memories?"

"September of last year," Kurama replied.

Hermione frowned. "Do you think you could have been kidnapped and had your memories wiped?"

"But why? Was this Shuuichi a powerful wizard or—"

Harry cut him off, "No, he was a muggle. Who's this father of yours, then? You said he was a Death Eater…"

His cover was falling to pieces! "I… his name's Tom…"

Harry growled, "Voldemort… he's been using you… but…"

"Why?" Hermione finished. "Shuuichi was a muggle… how do you have magic?"

"I've had it since I woke up without any memory… could they have done something to me?"

Harry hadn't take his eyes off the map and he noticed something on its edges. "Hermione, have you ever heard of a student called Yusuke Urameshi, Kazuma Kuwabara, or Hiei...?"

Hermione frowned. "No. Why?"

Kurama frowned. "Aren't they those guys that attacked us?"

"Did they say their names?"

"Yeah," Kurama replied, "and that's it… they acted like they knew me… maybe they could explain what's going on?"

Ron shook his head. "We're going with you. You could be making that up— they could be Death Eaters and you could be trying to distract us."

"Then let's go!"

* * *

Ipromisetoupdatethisyear.


	11. Author's Note: REWRITE UP NOW

Okay, I am the person in the world that mosts hates Author Notes for chapters, so please forgive me. I am SO sorry. Especially after this long! I hope you can forgive me for getting your hopes up.

But you deserve an explanation.

My computer crashed. I swear to God I planned to keep to my promise to update within a year. The chapter was almost finished by the time that my computer crashed last October.

Yes, I know I have had a lot of time since then, but the one thing I hate most in the world is doing things I've already done.

**I DO NOT PLAN TO ABANDON THIS STORY**

I actually plan to go through the earlier chapters and edit them because I have improved so much since I last touched this story. It reaches the point where the quality of this story legitimately bothers me and I will not stand for it.

**The re-write is up under the name "Cat's Cradle". This (incomplete) story will be marked complete, as I will not be touching this version again. I apologize for the inconvenience. **


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